Thursday, December 23, 2010

December 23rd

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is 1 Peter 5:12-14, 2 Peter 1-3

1 Peter was a letter of encouragement to sufferings believers, but 2 Peter focuses on problems in the church due to false teachers.

One of their false teachings was a slap in the face of God's greatest gifts - salvation. These teachers said that because salvation is not based on good deeds, believers could live however they wanted to. Truly a slap in the face.

It is true that salvation does not depend on good deeds. But it is proved genuine by good deeds, it results in good deeds.

In his sermon Confirm Your Election, John Piper says...
Virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection, love—these are not the wages that we pay to earn entrance into the eternal kingdom, but they are the necessary evidence that our trust in God's promise is genuine, and in that way they are the confirmation of our call and election...

Are you making every effort towards moral excellence? Are you making every effort to increase your knowledge of God's character and his will? Are you making every effort to strengthen your power of self-control? Are you making every effort to enlarge your capacity for patience? Are you making every effort to cultivate godliness to develop a heart for God? Are you making every effort to grow warm in your affection for your fellow believers? And are you making every effort to stir up love in your will for the person you dislike the most? If these things are in you and increasing, you will not be fruitless (v. 8), you will never stumble (v. 10), and you will enter the eternal kingdom of Christ (v. 11). But if these things are not your earnest concern, then it is because you have shut your eyes to the beauty of God's promises, and have forgotten the humble exhilaration of being forgiven.

Therefore, the Word of God warns us against being lazy in our faith and drifting away from Jesus Christ our only hope. And the Word encourages us to fight the good fight of faith and take hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12, 19); to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with perseverance the race before us (Hebrews 12:1); to press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14); to advance and grow and go forward in virtue and knowledge and self-control and patience and godliness and brotherly affection and love (2 Peter 1:5-7); and in this way to reassure our hearts and make our confidence firm that we are indeed called to share in God's glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:10, 3). (emphasis mine)

God is our power source, but we have to willing to fight the good fight of the faith.

Piper analogy: We are the light bulbs of our neighborhoods; God is the distant generator of electricity; and the cables that carry the power are God's promises.

Fight the good fight of the faith through the power of God by clinging to His promises.

Tomorrow's passage: 1 John 1-4:6

1 comment:

tammi said...

Oooo, good reminder. I'm finding these passages ~ tomorrow's, too ~ quite convicting. I fear there is so little noticeable difference between most Christians and non-Christians these days. Would Peter and John ~ were they to visit our churches and homes today ~ would they believe we'd ever even heard the gospel?